Sister Kati Ford...Happily Serving in Ukraine!

Dear Family,

It's official. I am living in the prettiest part of Odessa, the prettiest part of Ukraine, the prettiest part of Europe, maybe even the prettiest part of the world! I love it here and being in the heart of Odessa in the summer is so much fun! School (if you can call it that, I'm not sure how it works because they never seemed to go but...) finally ended and people and tourists are everywhere! The part of Odessa that we cover is actually mainly tourists, which makes missionary work hard. But at the same time, I have talked to people from all over the world, so little seeds of the gospel are spreading throughout the world because of the work I am doing here!

Last night in the MTC, with my Russian hat

In austria airport!

first view of Ukraine

For example,

Last Tuesday, A set of elders and our companionship decided to do a finding activity where we sang hymns. We headed down by "The Odessa stairs" and started singing. It was a cruise ship day (maybe next time we will try to pick a day where there are more Ukrainians then tourists) and within minutes, we had a big group of people around us. Sister Hunt and Elder Knight were talking to people and the other 3 of us were singing! It was so cool! People were asking questions, taking pictures and videos and accepting Mormon.org cards.

At one point, just Sister Busch and I were singing. A man and his wife came up and asked us if we were professional singers. We were like "No, where are you from, you speak English?" And it turns out that they were from Switzerland! They told us that they were the choir directors of serveral National Swiss choirs and that we had beautiful voices. Haha no one has ever told me that I have a beautiful voice before! They were so cool to talk to!

Then we met another older man. He was from Norway (Hi Grandpa!) and he knew the medley to one of the songs that we were singing. (we were singing Israel Israel God is Calling, but the song is different in Norway I guess.We were singing in Russian so he didn't understand the words.) But he came up and said, God loves us all. And we were like, "yes, he does". So that was cute!

Ukraine sight seeing at Opera house and stairs

This week I had a couple awesome opportunities. First of all, President Klebingat came down and Sister Hunt and I were able to have dinner with him. Everytime we go to our church building, we have to walk through this Italian resturaunt and it was so exciting because we finally got to eat there! It was so good! One miracle that I saw was that President ordered dessert for everyone (I guess that is a rare occasion!). I had a YUMMY strawberry pie! So good :)

Yesterday, we did our first extended split. I went to the Center Branch ward meetings, and my other two companions went to our other branch. I was on exchanges with a returned missionary names Yulia. She is a sweetheart and so excitied for the gospel. Plus she speaks english! :) But we got to church and she is like, "Hey we have some extra time, let's go contacting!" and we did and It was really good for me to get some more practice! In addtion to having me talk to every person we passed, if we passed a member of the church, I would practice on them too. The members thought that it was the funniest thing ever! But hey, they all accepted the invitiation to come to sacrament meeting with me :) It made me think of the Best Two Years. :)

This week, we taught more lessons then our past week. My favorite lesson that we taught was to a girl named Dasha. She has been investigating the church for awhile now, and Sister Busch warned us about that sometimes she was a little "flakey", especially about reading the scriptures. So we decided to teach about personal scripture study. That morning before we taught her, I was studying what I wanted to share with her. I felt prompted to read 2 Nephi 32. I did and planned a message about feasting on the words of Christ- which I felt strongly prompted to share. We got to the lesson and I started talking about what I wanted to share and Dasha said, "I felt like I should read 2 Nephi 29-32 last night and I did it. I love these chapters". And because I followed the prompting that morning, I was able to share a message from what she had read the night before. It was a real testimony builder that the Lord is aware of all of His children and he will bless them and help them. As we left the lesson, Sister Busch commented on how Dasha had never been that eager to talk about the scriptures and commit to read and study them. It really was a small miracle. Hopefully we can help her desire baptism soon!

Pictures of me! From today! I love the one of sister hunt and I by the anchor!

LIGHTNING!!

Something that I am learning to love more and more everyday is the opportunities I have to personal study everyday. I decided to make time to read and study the Book of Mormon for at least 15 minutes during every personal study. And I love that time. I feel like I recieve so much guidence from the Lord as I read the scriptures and ponder them and really feast on the Book of Mormon. I have really realized how blessed I am to have the Book of Mormon in my life. Something else that I have been studying is prayer. There was an article in the June Liahona about prayer, that I really took to heart and applied in my life. I decided to do all that I could to make my personal prayers better. Something that I decided was to do my nightly personal prayers a little earlier then 10:15-10:20ish, so that I could be more awake. Even that little bit of a change has helped my communication with the Lord grow so much.

This week I realized how blessed I am and how blessed I have been my whole life! We were talking to an investigator and (as they often do) she was going on about all the problems in her life when she told us that her income is 70 greven a day. Which is like 9 dollars a day! I was blown away! Before I left on my mission, I made more then that in an hour! I just couldn't stop reflecting on how blessed I have been in my life. I have had so many wonderful opportunities in my life! I am so grateful for the blessings I have in my life! When times get tough, it is easy to get swept away in your problems. Being on my mission has helped me realize how blessed I have been my whole life! Not only with the gospel, but with a stable income, healthy food, clean water! I am so blessed!

Anyways....I love being a missionary! The Lord is blessing me so much! :) I am so happy to be serving here in Ukraine! I hope all is well in America! :) Love you all so much! Email me! Write me!

Love, Sister Ford